In today's world technology is progressing very rapidly and one common example is computer technology. Being myself a computer enthusiast, I build my own PCs and I find it very interesting trying to keep pace with its evolution.

I have recently upgraded my latest computer which I initially built a year ago. The upgrade consisted mainly of replacing some buggy peripherals and improving the thermal solution so as to allow future overclocking of the system.

Initial configuration:

Chassis: Asus Vento TA-88

Power Supply Unit: Cooler Master eXtreme Power 550W

Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-965P-DS4 (Rev. 3.3)

Central Processing Unit: Intel Core 2 Duo E6600

Central Processing Unit Cooler: Asus P5A2

Memory: 2 x 1GB Kingston DDR2-667

Visual Graphics Accelerator: Gigabyte GV-NX88S320H-B-RH

Audio: Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi XtremeMusic

Optical Drive: Asus DRW-1814BLT

Hard Disk Drive: Hitachi Deskstar T7K250 200GB SATA2

Card Reader/Writer: Generic Internal 3.5" All-In-One

Monitor: Asus MM17D

Keyboard & Mouse: Logitech Cordless Internet Pro Desktop Combo

Printer, Copier & Scanner: HP F380

Speakers: Logitech Z-5500 Digital

Webcam: Logitech QuickCam Fusion

Space was limited and there wasn't any other cooler mounted except for the CPU, VGA and PSU.

The HDD had to be mounted in the 5.25" bay because of the monster VGA.

The initial build.

Actual configuration:

Chassis: Gigabyte 3D Mars

Power Supply Unit: Cooler Master eXtreme Power 550W

Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-965P-DS4 (Rev. 3.3)

Central Processing Unit: Intel Core 2 Duo E6600

Central Processing Unit Cooler: Gigabyte 3D Rocket II

Memory: 2 x 1GB Kingston DDR2-667

Visual Graphics Accelerator: Gigabyte GV-NX88S320H-B-RH

Audio: Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi XtremeMusic

Optical Drive: Sony Nec Optiarc AW-G170S

Hard Disk Drive: 2 x Western Digital Caviar SE 160GB SATA2

Card Reader/Writer: Generic Mini External All-In-One

Monitor: Asus MM17D

Keyboard & Mouse: Logitech Cordless Internet Pro Desktop Combo

Printer, Copier & Scanner: HP F380

Speakers: Logitech Z-5500 Digital

Webcam: Logitech QuickCam Fusion

My new set of wealth...

The 3D Rocket II stands at an impressive 16 cm on the Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 and hastwo fans mounted, one at the bottom to cool the area around the LGA 775 socket andone at the top which eliminates the heat coming from the processor via the heat-pipes.

WOW... It's so spacious inside.

The DVD burner, the fan controller and the front panel connectivities.

Simple, sleek and stylish!

As already underlined, the principal idea behind the upgrade was to improve the cooling system of the computer. Before, the temperatures I used to record with the Asus P5A2 were as follows:

Idle

Central Processing Unit: 34 - 40 degrees Celsius

Chipset: 54 degrees Celsius

Visual Graphics Accelerator: 63 degrees Celsius

Hard Disk Drive: 49 degrees Celsius

Medium Load

Central Processing Unit: 41 - 47 degrees Celsius

Chipset: 57 degrees Celsius

Visual Graphics Accelerator: 63 degrees Celsius

Hard Disk Drive: 50 degrees Celsius

Gaming/Full Load

Central Processing Unit: 48 - 64 degrees Celsius

Chipset: 62 degrees Celsius

Visual Graphics Accelerator: 74 degrees Celsius

Hard Disk Drive: 50 degrees Celsius

Now, the results speak for themselves...

Thanks to the 9 cooling fans!

This temperature reading was taken while writing this topic and I should admit that it was pretty shocking to see the CPU dissipating a heat of only 23 degrees Celsius with its cooler set to run at its minimum level (Silent: ~1500 RPM & 16 dB) while room temperature was 30 degrees Celsius.

I will be back with some more results soon but in the meantime I want to hear a bit about your computers and also, what you think about mine.

Last edited by Varun on Wed 20 Aug 2008 - 12:31; edited 7 times in total

Save your own money and then buy your upgrades. It won't cost that much. Let's try to assess it...

Kavi and Prithvi, you both have hardware of the same generation. What I can advise you is that you look for a Nvidia GeForce 7 series/ATI Radeon HD Series AGP VGA card like the 7600 GS or the HD 3650 and 2 GB DDR-400 memory. These 2 stuffs will surely come in handy for about Rs 6,000 - Rs 7,000.

Then you could overclock your CPU and VGA a little and the work is done.

Nvidia GeForce FX 5500 is a pretty old low-end VGA card and it shouldn't heat up too much. What makes you say the temperature is too high, k5? Have you monitored the temperature of your VGA card when idle and under load during a given period of time?

My previous storage space came to full capacity and I had no other choice than to invest in larger capacity hard drives. As for the memory modules, the only reason of this change was to bring my CPU at 3.6 GHz.

However, overclocking is not an exact science and so far, I've only managed up to 3.2 GHz...

By the way, my previous Windows Vista benchmarks weren't done with updated drivers following a fresh installation of the operating system. However, this time I did it and I got 4973 in PCMark Vantage and P5975 in 3DMark Vantage...

Even if I didn't say much in the appraisal of your computer system, I'm sure you've guessed how impressed I was by my facial expression when I saw your computer. Especially, when I listened to the THX, Dolby Digital and DTS demo trailers, isn't it honey? A big, great WOW! was all I could utter.

The first impression was beyond my expectation, truly perfect! Then, came the Banno Rani song. Before, whenever I listened to that song, I felt nothing special about it. After I heard that particular song on the THX sound system at Varun’s place, it was way too fantastic. I could not believe my ears! I was wondering why I didn’t like such a wonderful song in the past. Just imagine, guys! The next day on returning home, I played the same song at home. Believe me, it sounded damn awful. In my opinion, your THX sound system cannot be compared at any cost or on any condition to even a theatre. It’s unique, sweetheart!

Then came Need for Speed - Prostreet. Although I was out of practice, the experience was awesome, baby. I just loved the thrill of racing that car... Toooooo gooood!

I'm now waiting to come at your place as soon as possible and have another exhilarating experience with your computer system.

We are in 2009, the age of digital revolution, and I still compute with a Celeron D and 256 MB of RAM. Since some time, my computer was behaving strangely due to some viruses, corrupted software and other annoying things. So, I wasn't able to get a good experience with it. Moreover, I wanted to do some gaming but Varun told me it's practically impossible with such hardware. However, I wanted to give it a try and I downloaded an old game (Need For Speed - Underground 2) and installed it. Guess what? It played!

Varun then added a discrete graphics card (GeForce FX 5200), removed the viruses and formatted the hard drive for me to have a better experience.

Now, the computer seems okay and I'm ready to compete with some of you in the Gamers' Arena.

I'm not too much into the hardware stuffs but all I know is that I have a Celeron D processor rated 2.53 GHz, 256 MB of RAM, a GeForce FX 5200, a combo DVD/CD-RW drive, a 15-inch CRT screen, a Sony stereo hi-fi connected on the integrated audio port with a pair of Kenwood S-255 speakers and I'm proud that I can now make the most of it.

Last edited by Sneha on Thu 31 Dec 2009 - 16:29; edited 1 time in total